why is my old pc slow?

unwashed potato! · 24 Dec 2017 at 15:39

my old pc is just painful to use sometimes, doing even basic stuff like loading chrome for the first time, or copying files to a usb stick can take 30 minutes when on my new pc it's 30 seconds.

i've checked performance from task manager and the hard drive is almost always at 100% usage. could it be that the hard drive is bad? or the cable? or the motherboard etc? how would i diagnose the cause of the issue?

andy_mk3 · 24 Dec 2017 at 16:20

Specs of said pc?

If it's on a traditional spinning hard drive, and you're used to SSD speeds, then it will definitely feel slow.

But there can be other things using the drive to slow things down further. In processes on task manager, what process is using the drive?

terley · 24 Dec 2017 at 16:46

Probably because its old xD

But honestly, everything upgrades, i mean you would have a very hard time running the latest version of photoshop on an old Intel core 2 quad..

Developments in web browsers and the resources they need, the extra ram usage of modern day operating systems..

I remember Windows Vista coming out, everyone struggled using it because it needed at least 1gb of ram to run properley..

Saffy · 24 Dec 2017 at 19:32

It's a Windows 10 issue. There are a couple of useful videos on YouTube about 100% disk usage on Windows 10 and how to fix it.

unwashed potato! · 24 Dec 2017 at 20:26

i'm going to do a full reset of windows. what's the best method as this is an old (5 years from new) pc with nothing required, i'd like to fully reset and defrag the drive if that's still a thing that is suggested these days?

LewisRaz · 24 Dec 2017 at 21:04

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
i'm going to do a full reset of windows. what's the best method as this is an old (5 years from new) pc with nothing required, i'd like to fully reset and defrag the drive if that's still a thing that is suggested these days?

best method if you do not need to retain any files:
Make a win10 USB installer
Boot from it. Delete all partitions and install

Will take a few hours at least for most pcs to catch up with all the updates afterwards but after thats done you should be good.

dt97583 · 24 Dec 2017 at 21:09

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
i'm going to do a full reset of windows. what's the best method as this is an old (5 years from new) pc with nothing required, i'd like to fully reset and defrag the drive if that's still a thing that is suggested these days?

As above, what's the spec? SSD or HDD? Don't defrag an SSD. Defrag is yesteryear anyway, even with a mechanical drive (Win10 does it in the background), the key is to find what process is maxing out the disk. Whilst technology marches on a basic machine from a few years ago should remain useable. Something is killing your disk, I imagine your antivirus, from experience. You may resolve it with a wipe but without knowing the cause it may come back again (i.e. if you repeat the past, reinstall some dodge program / antivirus / antimalware)

Clarkson · 24 Dec 2017 at 21:21

As an aside to previous suggestions, do you ever use a programme like ccleaner? Not suggesting it’s your main issue but if I leave mine long enough without clearing out all the temporary internet files etc I’m convinced it starts getting slower even on an SSD.

unwashed potato! · 25 Dec 2017 at 00:18

It's an hdd. 1tb in size some Samsung one which was well priced when I bought it.

I only use the antivirus that Ms make.

I feel it could be an issue with one drive. Noticing an issue getting that to work properly when checking everything is properly backed up.

dt97583 · 25 Dec 2017 at 00:27

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
It's an hdd. 1tb in size some Samsung one which was well priced when I bought it.

I only use the antivirus that Ms make.

I feel it could be an issue with one drive. Noticing an issue getting that to work properly when checking everything is properly backed up.

Unplug the mech drive, run the machine a week without it, retry all tests e.g. copying files etc, get a new baseline, retry with HDD. If it's suspected to be on the way out then run some diagnostic tools from the specific manufacturer to sanity check this belief. As an aside how old is the drive?

You could try chkdsk /r and look for bad sectors as an interim measure.

unwashed potato! · 25 Dec 2017 at 15:35

I can't unplug it else I'll be left with no drive, but will do a check after I've done a full reset

dt97583 · 25 Dec 2017 at 16:47

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
I can't unplug it else I'll be left with no drive, but will do a check after I've done a full reset

I'd do the check first, before reformating.